Crossing Paths
by Ryn Turner
Summary: Commander Taryn Tucker and her best friend Dr. Aeryn Xavier go back in time to stop a tragedy from happening. **** Chapter 4 up!!!****
1. Chapter 1

Crossing Paths: Chapter One: A daughter's choice

Commander Taryn Tucker looked out her window. She had a beautiful view of the Atlantic ocean right now. But soon the view would change, the Earth would rotate and the view would be gone. That's how Taryn felt right now. 

She was at a crossroads. It was now or never. This oppurtunity would never happen again in her lifetime, maybe not ever again. But there was a problem: Taryn didn't know if she wanted to go through with her descision. If she did, she would be most definitly court-martialed and removed from Starfleet. Her career as a Starfleet officer would be over. But all Taryn had to think about was that she would be saving her father from death. 

Taryn was still lost in thought when the door behind her opened with a swish. Taryn turned to see her best friend, Dr. Aeryn Xavier. 

"What are you thinking about?" asked Aeryn. 

"Nothing. Everything." replied Taryn cryptically. 

"To me, that sounds like an invitation to be analyzed by a physcologist." smiled Aeryn. 

Taryn smiled slightly. "Maybe that's what I need." she said, turning back to the window. 

Aeryn frowned, sensing her friend's sad mood. "What's wrong Taryn?" she asked, crossing the room and putting a hand on Taryn's shoulder. 

Taryn sighed. She wished that she could tell Aeryn everything, the plan, her feelings, her doubts. Inside her heart though, she knew she couldn't. "Nothing. It's nothing." 

"Oh no you don't! I'm a doctor, remember? My job is to diagnose people. Now, if you were to ask me, i'd say you were suffering from depression or bad digestion!" said Aeryn. 

Taryn smiled slightly. It felt weird to smile. She hadn't smiled, a true smile, in a long time. 

"Now are you gonna tell me what's wrong, or do I have to drag you down to sickbay?" asked Aeryn. 

"I can't tell you." said Taryn softly. 

"You can't tell me? I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything. I promise not to tell." said Aeryn, putting a hand on her heart. 

"You don't understand." replied Taryn, "I don't want to drag you down with me. I don't want you to suffer with me." 

Aeryn was geuinely worried about her friend. "Taryn, I'd give my career if it would help you. Now tell me: what's wrong?" 

Taryn sighed, weighing wether to tell her friend or not. In the end, friendship won out. 

Taryn sat down across from Aeryn at one of the windows. "I don't have much time, but I'll tell you what's bothering me. It all started 25 years ago..." 

*R&R please, tell me if i should continue...*


	2. Chapter 2

*The basis of my story comes from the episode 'Silent Enemy', (at least, i think it was 'Silent Enemy'!) where Trip mentions his girlfriend Natalie breaking up with him. This is my twist on why she broke up with him.* 

~*The italics are flashbacks*~ 

A mother's wish 

__

25 years ago... 

__

Natalie Beille held her newborn daughter in her arms. The little girl was asleep, her small curls of dirty blonde hair resting on the top of her head. Natalie smiled down at her, just watching the little girl sleep. 

"What are you gonna name her?" asked Natalie's best friend, Sanya. 

Natalie kept looking down at her daughter. "Taryn. I always liked the name Taryn. And so did Trip." 

Sanya sighed. "Are you going to tell him?" 

Natalie looked up at her friend. Sanya just didn't understand. "No. And you know why?" 

Sanya shook her head. 

"Because I don't want to ruin his career. He worked too hard, too long to get where he is. He deserves to be up there. I'm proud of him, and I don't want to crash his dreams. Because, knowing Trip, he would come back here, to Earth, and stay here with me. He'd let all his talents and dreams go to waste just to be with me. I'm not going to let that happen." 

"Nat," said Sanya, "I respect that you're trying to help him, but shouldn't he know? Why don't you let him make the descision? And what about Taryn? Shouldn't she have the right to know her father?" 

"No. I've made my choice. Someday she'll understand. She'll understand that I made the best choice, for all of us." 

~*~ 

25 years later... 

"So you see?" said Taryn, "She made the descision to not tell my father. That descision, based only on what she thought was right, was maybe the deciding factor in my father's death." 

Aeryn looked at her friend, carefully considering her next words before speaking. "Taryn, the descision that your mother made 25 years ago, it's over. There's nothing you can do about it now. You just have to live with it." she said gently. 

At Aeryn's words, a small smile graced Taryn's lips. "That's where you're wrong. Today, at 10:30am, a temporal annomaly will open near one of Jupiter's moons, Io. It will be open for 4.7 minutes, then close and disappear. I'm going to take a shuttle and go back in time to save my father." 

Aeryn studied her friend, trying to decide if Taryn was crazy or not. "Ok, let's say your idea works and you do go through time. How do you know what point in time you'll end up at?" 

Taryn smiled. She was clearly excited now, discussing her plan in full detail now. "The annomaly analyzes the lifeforms that pass through. It seems almost sentient somehow. Anyways, when the lifeforms pass through, it searchs their thoughts and pinpoints a time that they wish to go to. If I were to think of, for example, World War Three, that's where it would take me." 

"How did you get all this information?" asked Aeryn, impressed that her friend had thought this far ahead. 

"Starfleet had already documemted this phemonemon before. Guess who found it first?" said Taryn. 

Aeryn sighed. "The Enterprise." 

Taryn smiled. "Exactly. Now if you'll excuse me, it's 08:56, and I need to get to the shuttlebay." 

*That's it for now, more later, R&R please!*


	3. Chapter 3

*//= thoughts* 

Aeryn ran after her friend. "Taryn, you can't do this! Do you know how many lives you'll be changing? How much that you'll change the timeline? You can't do this! I won't let you!" 

Taryn kept walking. "Aeryn, I won't let you get in my way. And yes, I have thought about what I'm doing." Taryn stopped walking, and turned to face Aeryn. "Have you ever thought that maybe my father wasn't meant to die? Maybe someone else tampered with the timeline. Maybe my father was someday going to make a miraculous advancement in warp mechanics, and someone killed him because of it. I don't know why my father did die Aeryn; all I know is that I'm willing to give my own life, so that he can live. So don't get in my way." Taryn started to walk again. 

Aeryn was silent for a moment, and then followed Taryn. "I'm coming with you." 

Taryn stopped in her tracks, once again. "Aeryn, i'm not going to let you endanger yourself. You're going to stay here." 

"No way." protested Aeryn. "You see, I know everything. And if I don't bring you in right now, I'll be court-martialed with you. So I figure, if I'm going to be court-martialed anyways, I'll come with you!" 

Taryn was quiet for a moment, and then smiled. "You're just as stubborn as I am. Come on, we don't have that much time." The two women turned and walked quickly to the shuttlebay. 

*~* 

"You're a pilot?" asked Aeryn once they were in the shuttle. 

Taryn flashed her a smile. "Hey, I have more skills than just being an engineer." 

Taryn ran through her pre-flight checklist while Aeryn sat quietly, looking into the shuttlebay. 

"All systems are go," said Taryn. "Are you ready" she asked Aeryn. 

"I'm ready." said Aeryn softly. 

Taryn looked at her friend, then started up the engines. "Here se go." she mumbled. 

The ship moved off the deck floor, and flew out the launch bay doors. Taryn piloted the ship around the asteroid belt, avoiding the orbital telescopes and asteroids. 

Aeryn spoke once more. "I just had a thought. What point in time are we going to?" 

"We're going back 25 years, and one month before my father died." 

Those were the last words they spoke before they disappeared in the anomaly, and traveled backwards in time. 

*~* 

Malcolm was bored. He was the only senoir officer on the night shift, and nothing was happening. Not even a rogue asteroid he could use for target practice. No, everything was beautifully calm, and that annoyed the hell out of him. 

//I signed up for adventure, and what do I get? Night shift and an exciting manual on how to make weapons lockers more efficent.// He sighed. //I may as well start reading.// 

That's when his board started to beep at him. 

//Now what?// he thought. Malcolm analyzed his board, then doublechecked. The findings were the same both times. A Federation shuttle had just apperared out of nowhere, and was calling out a distress signal. 

Malcolm fumbled over to the communicator. "Reed to Captain Archer." he said. 

It took a moment for Captain Archer to respond. "What is it Malcolm?" asked the Captain groggily. 

"You better get down here now sir, a Federation shuttle just appeared out of nowhere and is sending out a distress call." 

The Captain was silent, then responded, no longer groggy. "On my way. Wake up the rest of the senoir staff and tell them to meet us on the bridge." 

~*~ 

A moments later, the entire senoir staff was assembled on the bridge, even Dr. Phlox. They had scanned the shuttle and saw the extensive damage caused to it. They decided uniaminously that they should act first, ask questions later. Trip activated the tractor beam and pulled them in. 

"Dr. Pholx, Hoshi, Trip, you guys with me. Malcolm, I want you to get a security team, and meet us there ASAP. T'Pol, you have the bridge" said Captain Archer. 

Once in the turbolift, the group's mood seemed to go down a notch. "I wonder how they got this far out." said Trip. 

"Yeah. I thought we were the only ship this far out. But then again, we haven't been home in three years, so don't really know what kind of advances they've made." answered Hoshi. 

"Yeah, but it's not possible to get out here that fast. Hell, it took us three years to get this far." countered Trip. 

"It doesn't matter how they got here so fast." interupted Archer. "We'll find that out later. Right now we have to help who's inside that shuttle." 

The turbolift was then silent, and they walked quickly to the shuttle bay. Once inside, they found that Malcolm and his security team had already surrounded the shuttle, waiting for the captain and the others to arrive. Archer signaled for Malcolm to open the door. 

The door opened with a swish, and went upwards. Some trapped smoke inside the shuttle escaped, then Archer went in cautiously, Dr. Phlox and Hoshi following behind. Archer found at the front of the shuttle two human women, both seemed to be in their late twenties. They were both conscious, and one was healing the other's head wound. 

"Hello. My name is Captain Jonathon Archer. We're on a Federation starship, the Enterprise. You would be...?" 

The woman with the head wound stood up and turned to face the captain, much to the protest of the other woman. 

"My name is Lieutenant Commander Taryn Beille. My companion is Dr. Aeryn Xavier." 

The other woman got up from the floor. She put out her hand to Archer. Archer shook after a moment. "Pleased to meet you." said Dr. Xavier. "I need to interupt your conversation here for a moment. My very stubbourn friend has a mild concussion, and I don't have the ressources with me to heal her. So if you don't mind, could we continue this conversation in your sickbay?" 

Archer nodded, and led the two women to sickbay, Trip, Hoshi, Malcolm and Dr. Phlox following behind. 

*R&R please.*


	4. Chapter 4

Taryn lay silent on her bed. A PADD sat on her lap, as she read quietly. Absorebed as she was in her reading, she didn't hear the door pen.

"Hello." a voice said at her side.

Taryn practically leapt out of her skin. "Ohmygod!" she exclaimed.

"It's ok!" a voice laughed, "It's only me."

Taryn looked to her side and saw Commander Tucker, a big smile on his face.

"Sorry." she said sheepishly, "I didn't hear you come in."

"I noticed." he said wryly.

There was a moment of silence between them. "Is there a reason you came?" Taryn finally said.

"I, uh, came to ask ya a question.." he said, suddenly becoming nervous.

"Yes?"

"Well, your last name is Beille, right?" he asked, as she nodded the affirmative. "I once knew someone with the same last name, Natalie Beille. Do you know her?"

It took Taryn a moment to respond. The subject of her mother had always been touchy to her, and now she had to think of something to tell her father.

"She's my cousin!" she blurted out. It was the first thing that she had thought of.

"Really?!" said Trip, a look of curiosity appearing on his features.

"Yeah."

"Did she, uh, ever mention me?" he asked excitedly.

"She said that she loved you very much." Taryn said honestly. Her mother, even though she had never said his name, was always telling her how much she loved Taryn's father.

"Oh." said Trip, surprised but happy. "Thanks Taryn." he said, flashing her a smile before heading for the door.

"Any time. Good night, Trip." she said.

" 'Nite Taryn."


End file.
